Humor Random Comments Thread

[Andy44]

Abe Vigoda passed away today at 94. He acted in the Godfather and in the TV show Barney Miller (a great show).

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/a...-actor-of-godfather-fame-dies-at-94.html?_r=0

No, really, I mean it...he's dead. Really.

Man, we need a freeze on celebrity death for a week or so.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Man, we need a freeze on celebrity death for a week or so.

No, we just need to choose ones that are... less meaningful. Like some seriously stupid folks whose last name starts with K... :lol:

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Playing with one of the stocking stuffers my sister gave me for Christmas: :thumbup:

 

[Thunder Chicken]

No, we just need to choose ones that are... less meaningful. Like some seriously stupid folks whose last name starts with K... :lol:

I can't stomach what is worshipped as celebrity these days. Celebrities were celebrated for having some sort of talent. You might not enjoy their particular talent, but you could often recognize that they possessed something special. Yes, some celebrities had a trashy side. But now the definition of celebrity is someone capable of drawing attention to their stupid, outrageous behavior, maybe possessing freakish anatomical dimensions, but no talent.

So glad I don't have a TV.

 

[APDAF]

Certain celebrities tend to lower the IQs of entire nations...

While the good ones are all dying off...

 

[Matias Saibene]

Certain celebrities tend to lower the IQs of entire nations...(

https://youtu.be/VbxgYlcNxE8?t=220
While listening to this music, take an AK-47, and you know what to do, in the name of The Probe.

Like some seriously stupid folks whose last name starts with K... :lol:

Go and ask for a last name beginning with K in my country...
*slips and falls down the stairs to The Basement*

 

[kamaz]

---------- Post added at 11:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 PM ----------

https://youtu.be/VbxgYlcNxE8?t=220
While listening to this music, take an AK-47, and you know what to do, in the name of The Probe.

 

[Andy44]

The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

In psychology, the idea that everyone is like us is called the “false-consensus bias.” This bias often manifests itself when we see TV ratings (“Who the hell are all these people that watch NCIS?”) or in politics (“Everyone I know is for stricter gun control! Who are these backwards rubes that disagree?!”) or polls (“Who are these people voting for Ben Carson?”).

Online it means we can be blindsided by the opinions of our friends or, more broadly, America. Over time, this morphs into a subconscious belief that we and our friends are the sane ones and that there’s a crazy “Other Side” that must be laughed at — an Other Side that just doesn’t “get it,” and is clearly not as intelligent as “us.” But this holier-than-thou social media behavior is counterproductive, it’s self-aggrandizement at the cost of actual nuanced discourse and if we want to consider online discourse productive, we need to move past this....

When someone communicates that they are not “on our side” our first reaction is to run away or dismiss them as stupid. To be sure, there are hateful, racist, people not worthy of the small amount of electricity it takes just one of your synapses to fire. I’m instead referencing those who actually believe in an opposing viewpoint of a complicated issue, and do so for genuine, considered reasons. Or at least, for reasons just as good as yours.

https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda/the-other-side-is-not-dumb-2670c1294063#.61evo0ozy

 

[Scav]

So I was youtubing some relaxing music tonight and I noticed this:

 

[jedidia]

The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

I know, right? But it seems the others are too stupid to get that!

 

[MaverickSawyer]

The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb



https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda/the-other-side-is-not-dumb-2670c1294063#.61evo0ozy

Honestly, half the problem is the fact that there's only two sides to vote for. I remember seeing something about the Founding Fathers specifically warning us NOT to go to a two-party system... :facepalm:

 

[Matias Saibene]

More graphics for fictional aerospace companies.

Inspired by this screenshot, and the gigantic constructions of Dantassii.

By the way the termination -ii seems Latin.

 

[TMac3000]

Honestly, half the problem is the fact that there's only two sides to vote for. I remember seeing something about the Founding Fathers specifically warning us NOT to go to a two-party system... :facepalm:

I agree that a two-party system sucks--but it's kind of inevitable. There are some decisions that can only go one of two ways. Either your country does this thing, or it does not. Those who want to do it will go into one camp, and those who don't will go into another. Those who are ambivalent will stay out of the fray, but the thing will be done or not be done. And like I said in the Brexit thread, people who are like-minded generally want to hang out.

 

[Izack]

One powdery snow, please.

There's some falling right now. Hurry up and grab it before it gets gross!

Presumably the first image was referring to some other song. Still, not a bad point...

 

[SolarLiner]

Fun fact, Vsauce used this example in his "Juvenoia" video actually didn't, but still a good vid on the 'generation gap':

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I agree that a two-party system sucks--but it's kind of inevitable. There are some decisions that can only go one of two ways. Either your country does this thing, or it does not. Those who want to do it will go into one camp, and those who don't will go into another. Those who are ambivalent will stay out of the fray, but the thing will be done or not be done. And like I said in the Brexit thread, people who are like-minded generally want to hang out.

But people aren't binary like this. Yes, they may be split yes/no on certain issues, but certain groups that may oppose on certain issues may agree on others. It's not a blue or red politic, more a Venn diagram with a lot of curious overlaps.

But politically, there is incentive to consolidate power into two groups, especially in a culture like the U.S. where coalitions are eschewed. It simplifies selling differences to the masses (Us versus Them) vs a confusing mess of parties with slightly different takes. And clearly the minimum is 2 parties, as a single party can only exist at gunpoint. Without that, someone will always be the opposition.

 

[SolarLiner]

Yeah. A two party system is not the best. You can't align your views truly. There's no such thing as a full-on Republican or Democratic. Everyone will have diverging views on some matters but converging ones on others. Even if the questions are binary, everyone will pretty much have a different view on the 'Grand Scheme of Things'. This is why, in France, there are several parties. They're defined as Left or Right still, but differ in ways that suits an electoral group better than an other.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah. A two party system is not the best. You can't align your views truly. There's no such thing as a full-on Republican or Democratic. Everyone will have diverging views on some matters but converging ones on others. Even if the questions are binary, everyone will pretty much have a different view on the 'Grand Scheme of Things'. This is why, in France, there are several parties. They're defined as Left or Right still, but differ in ways that suits an electoral group better than an other.

I generally think that parties are no longer the best way to do politics.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I generally think that parties are no longer the best way to do politics.

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. What alternatives can you envision?

I think there is a certain problem in politics similar to that of a biologist tasked with organizing organisms. There are "lumpers" that tend to want to combine everything into certain groups, and "splitters" that tend to observe the fine gradations and subdivide accordingly.

The lumpers have held sway in U.S. politics for a long time. There are technically many political parties in the U.S., but practically you are Republican, Democrat, maybe Independent, and everyone else gets dismissed as wack-jobs with no chance of winning. These "wack-jobs" might actually have excellent ideas and have very reasonable politics, but they don't align themselves under R or D and so fall through the cracks.

Even Bernie Sanders - he's a democratic socialist, where the Democratic Party (tm) is really more centrist. He (and the democratic socialists) know that they have better a better chance of being heard if they align with the Democratic Party and define their left position.

I suppose the same is true with the Republicans - look at the range of political views in that rabble of candidates, yet all are running under the Republican banner. Practically they are different parties, but for pragmatic reasons simply all label themselves Republican. They love calling each other RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), which is true, because they all define being Republican in different ways.

 

[Urwumpe]

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. What alternatives can you envision?

Generally, I think it should be about which values you want to see for a position. Not just finished solutions or always vote for every tiny law. I have no good solution yet, but I like what the LiquidDemocracy concept does in the few counties in which it was experimentally tested.

It is essentially about that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegative_democracy

Not sure if it also works for big issues, which are way more complex than you can easily put into a few words because the time scale exceeds what can easily be grasped. But essentially, it must be about involvement. Because if the people want to be involved, you should make it easy, not tell them to wait until you are done with the big donors of your party.

But we get into Basement territory there.

---------- Post added at 11:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 AM ----------

My new toy arrived

Now my eternally drilling and hammering neighbor can has no other option but listen while my guitar gently weeps.